Laurel Hester, the New Jersey woman who fought to get her pension awarded to her female partner died yesterday. She succeeded in making sure that her partner Stacie Andree was able to receive her money and keep their family home, after a long legal battle with county officials.
Johnny’s flamboyant, but he’s not officially out…
“I think it’s funny that people care,” Weir said before ultimately placing fourth. “I don’t have a problem with people saying anything. People could be saying, ‘Oh, let’s poll about Bode Miller. Let’s poll about Michelle Kwan being a lesbian. It’s not a big deal. Who I sleep with doesn’t affect what I’m doing on the ice or what I’m doing in a press conference.”
Earlier in the week, the Tribune interviewed Rudi Galindo, a former U.S. champion and one of the only openly gay figure skaters in the business. Galindo complained that the media was not confronting Weir about the question of whether he is gay.
“He’s drinking tea with his pinkie finger in the air, and he’s so over the top and feminine, why is everybody asking him about his style and not just ask him if he’s gay?” Galindo told the Tribune. “It’s the funniest thing to watch.”
Weir has never publicly discussed rumors that he is gay, though according to the Tribune, at nationals he said he had been through a tumultuous personal relationship recently that had had a negative impact on his skating. When asked to further discuss that issue again at the Olympics, he declined.
In past news conferences, Weir has described himself as a “diva” and called himself “princess-y,” making sure to point out that he is not a jock but an athlete dressed in rhinestones and sequins.
Then, when asked about the subject on his personal Web site, Weir replied: “People talk. Figure skating is thought of as a female sport, something that only girly men compete in. I don’t feel the need to express my sexual being because it’s not part of my sport and it’s private. I can sleep with whomever I choose.”
I’ve seen it a dozen different places already online, but I can’t help making the reference myself, because I sing the song every time I think of him – Johnny Are You Queer?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon’s costs for firing service members for homosexuality under its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy were nearly twice as high as a government estimate made last year, an independent commission said on Tuesday.
A University of California commission of military experts said it cost at least $363.8 million to implement the policy from 1994 to 2003. That is 91 percent more than the $190.5 million estimated a year ago by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.
Opponents of the policy — a compromise forged when former President Bill Clinton tried to lift the Pentagon’s ban on gays serving in the military — said the report showed more reason to end restrictions entirely.
Under the policy, gays could serve if their sexual orientation remained secret and if they refrained from homosexual conduct. More than 10,000 service members have been fired for homosexuality since 1994, the panel said.
Too bad the government didn’t go with the “So they’re gay, get over it” policy instead — it cost $0.00. And we could have built a few schools with the savings.
During March and April The Soulforce Equality Ride will be visiting 19 religious and military schools to give voice to those who can not speak up themselves because of oppressive school policies. Many of these schools expell lgbtq students who come out or are outed.
At military and religious colleges around the nation, bans on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender enrollment force students into closets of fear and self-hate. These bans devalue the life of GLBT people and they slam the door on academic freedom. The Equality Ride empowers young adults to challenge these college bans.
Scheduled to take place in the spring of 2006, the Equality Ride will take 25–30 young adults on a seven-week bus tour to confront numerous religious and/or military colleges that ban the enrollment of GLBT students. At each stop along the journey the members of the Equality Ride will present a powerful case for GLBT equality.
Like the Freedom Rides of the 50’s and 60’s, the Equality Ride is a student-led effort that takes young adults into epicenters of intolerance and oppression to make a better tomorrow. In going on this journey, the Equality Riders draw inspiration from those Freedom Riders over forty years ago.
The goal of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.
He has the face of Paul Rubens, the hair of Nick Nolte, and the fashion sense of a gay dolphin caught in a fishing net while reenacting a scene from Showgirls. What’s not to love about U.S. Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir?
As Steph mentioned on her blog, Johnny is one of the Boys We Like. Which is quite different than our friend Scott’s version of “Boys I Like.” On Scott’s version, you can sometimes seee boy’s pee-pees. We pretend they don’t have ’em.
Every time Johnny opens his mouth he scares reporters. Just by saying things I hear every day from my gay men:
“I am very princessy as far as travel is concerned and having a nice room and things like that. Sorry to say ‘princessy,'” he added, laughing, “but that’s what we do.”
Known for his outspoken manner, the three-time U.S. men’s champion isn’t afraid to declare that the Olympic Village “is not very comfortable.”
“It’s a little dusty, very underdecorated, the beds aren’t very soft,” Weir said Tuesay, “but I’m enjoying it!”
In sports reporting, “Outspoken” is code for “flaming homo.”
Cool. If I ever had to move back to Iowa to live closer to my extended family, I’d have a place to live in Dubuque.
Of course you’ve heard about the teenager Jacob Robida who went on a rampage at a gay bar in Massachusetts with an axe and a gun, and who was later killed in a police shootout.
Checkout his myspace web page.
Too bad none of the people he hurt and killed get to have accolades on the internet after this terrible incident. I’m sorry I can’t find my way to forgiving him.
While we were watching this weeks episode of The L-Word, (episode 4, season 3) we noted that so far this year, there has been a distinct lack of hot sex such as existed in previous seasons. In the past, the characters were shuckin’ clothes and doing the deed several times an episode, whereas this season has been quite tame. Shockingly so, in fact. Every episode, we wait breathlessly for the Parental Warnings screen, hoping against hope for Adult Content and Adult Situations, and every week, the screen reports only “Brief Nudity.” (“Only brief,” Stephanie says bleakly, each time.) They are apparently not participating in my new years resolution campaign.
I’m not saying the show is boring, or anything. I enjoy character-driven drama. But there are some advantages to being on cable, and this show should be taking advantage of them.
Last week, NBC allowed Chris Matthews to say, on the air, that Osama bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore.
This week, though, when Rachel Maddow made a much more apt comparison on Tucker Carlson’s show, saying:
This is a global war on terror. This is a war for you or for us to win. You need patience…He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he’s saying that only less gay. I mean this is ridiculous.
NBC chose to scrub the transcript. Ken Mehlman, for those who don’t know, is the closeted gay head of the Republican National Committee. Here’s the transcript that NBC put online:
MADDOW: He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he‘s saying that. This is ridiculous.
CARLSON: I‘m going to blow by that comment. But I will say—you…
Apparently you’re allowed to dis Democrats but not tell the truth about Republicans.
The television show “Welcome to the Neighborhood” was supposed to be a huge hit. Seven families compete to win a McMansion on a cul-de-sac in an suburban neighborhood, with the winners being chosen by the neighbors. Turns out, the popular couple who won, by changing the hearts and minds of the redneck republican residents, were gay men. And ABC, fearing a backlash from the religious right in the form of a boycott of their pet film Chronicles of Narnia, killed the show because they thought viewers might object to a neighborhood embracing gay people as friends and neighbors.
Now the gay couple who won the house, and the neighbors who changed their minds to support them, are speaking out about what happened.